


we'll play pretend

by ithilien22



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-01
Updated: 2011-02-01
Packaged: 2017-10-22 16:11:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/239949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ithilien22/pseuds/ithilien22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brittany just wanted to get them out of Lima in one piece.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we'll play pretend

Some days it's almost too much - the days when she comes home feeling exhausted and humiliated and has to fight the urge to smash something.

"It was your idea," Santana reminds her on those days, when Brittany calls her in near tears. "You could just stop."

But it's been so long that Brittany thinks it would probably be even worse if she stopped now. _Two more years,_ she silently counts as she walks down the hall and tries to ignore the leers of at least three different football players that she's slept with as part of her brilliant plan.

Eventually it's down to _one year, eight months._ Then suddenly it's _one year, three months_.

She does start to feel a little bit bad about Artie after awhile. Honestly, she'd picked him because he had seemed like a classic douche in a simple, irredeemable sort of way. Except he's not really, and sometimes he's so unexpectedly sweet that it makes her feel like a piece of shit.

She calls Santana on those days, too. "He had sex with you while assuming that you have the mental capacity of a five-year-old," she tells Brittany, voice scathing. "Trust me, you're not the bad guy in this one."

Everything about Santana soothes Brittany, but especially the stolen moments they find - tangled together, hidden away from the rest of the world. Sometimes as they lay together in the stillness just before dawn, Santana will whisper to Brittany about the future and her words are like a steadying hand that holds Brittany up throughout the rest of the day.

 _Just one more year,_ she tells herself.

The plan works, of course. Being Sue Sylvester's golden girls gets them both four years of ESPN coverage and scholarships to schools that are no where near Lima, Ohio. The day that Santana gets the first acceptance letter (and accompanying scholarship offer) she actually breaks down and cries in Brittany's arms. Brittany just holds her and lets her cry, rubbing circles against Santana's back and peppering kisses against her hair. Afterwards she dutifully pretends it never happened.

On the last day of high school, Brittany considers her options. She's already broken up with Artie and she strongly considers just letting it all go. In two months she'll be living with Santana in an apartment in California and studying at the school of her dreams. In all likelihood, she's never going to see any of these people ever again. She wonders if it really even matters now.

But sitting in Glee Club listening to Mr. Schuester give one of his patented sappy speeches, she knows she can't just leave it like this. They should _know_.

So she interrupts. Says, "I have something to say," in a serious tone of voice. Santana tenses next to her and Mr. Schue stops abruptly, offering a slightly condescending smile.

"Um, okay. What's up, Brittany?"

"I'm sorry."

It isn't what she had planned to say, but she knows as soon as she's said it that it needed to be said first. She _is_ sorry. Not completely - she did get what she wanted after all - but for some things.

"I shouldn't have lied to all of you, especially you," she says, glancing over at Artie. Despite Santana's reassurances, Artie is still one of her biggest regrets in this whole thing. He wasn't really a Puck after all.

Everyone just sort of stares at her - part confused, part amused - as if waiting for the punchline. She doesn't have one.

"What Britt's trying to say is that we played all of you," Santana pipes up from the back of the risers. She glares around the room imperiously, "and for the record, I'm _not_ sorry."

Brittany watches their faces as she tells the story. Mr. Schue and Finn continue to look confused. Artie and Tina both look angry. Most of them remain relatively indifferent. Quinn looks sympathetic, though, and Kurt gives her a tentative smile when she catches his eye.

In the end, it doesn't take that long to tell. She feels like she should say something else, something profound, something to give her closure on this whole awful experiment. But the truth is, there's nothing to say. She was already over high school before it even started.

So instead, she just holds her hand out and waits as Santana comes down off the risers and wordlessly takes it. They walk out of the choir room together, hand in hand, and never look back.


End file.
